Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Ellie stories...

I wanted to update my blog on a few of the Ellie stories. Whenever she says something funny I think oh- I need to put that on my blog. Then, I end up forgetting them. But, one story I thought was cute, and I actually remembered it. Ever since Jill's wedding at the Aquarium...Ellie LOVES fish and LOVES to talk about the aquarium. She has a fish book and Tim has taught her all of the different types of sea creatures. She can name shrimp, coral, sea stars, cucumbers, jelly fish, squid, etc. Anyways, she wants to go back to the aquarium...the only thing is she thinks someone has to get married in order to go back. So, one day we were sitting at the table eating lunch together and a commercial for the aquarium came on. She looked over at me and said "mommy, we can go to the aquarium and you and daddy can get married" I just laughed and said...mommy and daddy are already married, we got married a couple of years before you were born. She looked at me like she just lost her best friend and said "ah, man...I guess we won't get to go to the aquarium". haha!! Then I explained that we would still be able to take her to the aquarium even though no one was getting married.

Also, Shunggy (Ellie's ghost friend) has been paying us visits more and more. Ellie puts out snacks, opens the door for her, and makes her juice. The kids went to Grammie and pop pop's house this weekend and they said she even wanted to pull up a chair at the dinner table for Shunggy.

Cole is now pulling all the way up on things and attempting to try to cruise. This is all going way too fast! I don't think I posted on here that his blood work came back that he was anemic. He is on a iron supplement and high iron packed foods until his 1 year appt...where they are going to have to DRAW BLOOD AGAIN to make sure his red blood cell levels come up. If they don't...not sure what happens...but if they do he will just remain on the high iron foods. I am just going to tell the guy to prick his finger instead of going through all of the troubles we had last time though! I made the appt while El is in preschool so she won't be tramatized again!

We leave for the beach Friday...Ellie is SO excited! She keeps saying "mommy, I want to go to the beach NOW" But...I will have lots of fun pics and stories to share when we get back!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

My L-Bean is going to be 3 tomorrow

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ellie belles. I cannot believe she is 3 today! Here are some pictures of Ellie over the past 3 years...Love you El!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Check-up updates!

Cole and Ellie had their well visit today at the doctor. Ellie had her annual check up and Cole had his 9 month appt. Both went well...kind of...

Ellie is good to go...of course she impressed the doctor with her vocabulary and personality (shocker she talks a lot!). She was 37 1/4 inches and 37 pounds.

Then my poor Cole buddy. He had a rough day poor guy. At the 9 month appt Kaiser does a blood work up to check for the normal blood work things (that is my way of saying...I have no idea why). So, I was prepared because when Ellie had this done Tim had to hold her down and it was awful. So, I knew not to go by myself. Nana stepped up and came with us! Thanks Nana! Cole was first looked over by the doctor and turns out he had bronchiolitis. He has had some problems with coughing and then gagging and then...bllahhhh all over the person who is holding him. It was getting really old cleaning up his bllaahhh...anyways...the doctor said he has the congestion/fluid/whatever in his broncioles which has become infected. So...he is on an inhaler in hopes that the congestion will go away and help with the coughing/puking.

Cole was 28 3/4 inches and 21.2 pounds...which he has lost a few ounces since he went about a month ago...but that was expected with all the vomiting. He was in the 70th percentile for his height and weight and then his head has made a big leap to the 80th percentile!

Back at his 6 month appt they were running low of the HIB vaccine so Cole/Mommy got an unexpected shot today. Then, it was off to the lab. Mind you Mommy made a mistake and had this appt right in the middle of his afternoon nap time. So, needless to say Cole was not being a gentleman before we walked in there. So, the little lab man wrapped that blue rubber band around his arm to get the vessel popping and then the mean man took FOREVER to get ready to draw the blood. So, as Cole's left arm is all but falling off the lab man is taking his darn sweet time. Then, in goes the butterfly needle. And, nothing...and nothing...and crying...and howling like a dog...then in the background I hear Ellie screaming "my broder, my broder". Finally, I had to release Cole's legs (because I was having to hold his legs while my mom held his arms) and take Ellie out. After about 5 minutes of this guy digging in Cole's arm with a needle he never found the vein. So...THEN they had to prick the poor little guys fingers and let the blood drain (slowly) into the container. By this time, Cole had worked himself up so much that he fell asleep in Nana's arms. Wheeewww...when we left both Nana and myself were both sweating like we played 3 sets of tennis in the dead of summer! But, it is over...thank goodness!

Ellie's 3rd Birthday Parties!

This was as a BIG weekend for our Ellie girl! She had her birthday parties for her 3rd birthday. Time really does fly! I remember sitting at my parents house, newly pregnant, talking to my sister Katie saying wow, there is going to be another person in our family...that was so weird to think about. Now, I cannot imagine life without her. She had lots of fun at her parties. She had a breakfast party for her friends in the morning. They all wore their PJ's and we all ate breakfast together. Then, we had her family party in the evening. We grilled out and played on Ellie's new jump house. Here are some pics from the party...sorry my video recorder died so no video...booo...

















Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Jesus love Ellie...and she is proud of it!

Here is my future singer (Not really!!)


Sunday, March 15, 2009

He will kill me one day for this...

I cannot HELP it. I have to tell this story and show the pictures. It will be a story that I want to tell Cole one day! Sorry if this offends or grosses any one out!

Wednesday night Kate, Dan, and Luke came over for dinner b/c I was watching Luke Thursday for them. So, I was outside grilling the hamburgers when Katie came running out saying "Julie, you have to get in here and see what Cole is doing." So, like a concerned mother I ran in and found Cole sitting in the bathroom floor playing with Tampons. He was chewing on them, holding them up and looking at them, and scattering them all over the floor (these were clean and unused Tampons, of course!) So, we were laughing so hard at him and then here comes little Ellie. She looked at Cole and looked at the Tampons and said "Cole-man, you cannot play with mommy's bandaids! TOO FUNNY! Here are the pictures and I can guess that Cole will NOT be happy with me later in life!! Hehe!!




Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My sweet, yet attacking nephew!

I was looking through my Flip video recorder today and came across this video...it made me laugh so I thought it would make at least his mama and daddy laugh too! This begins to explain Luke...INTO EVERYTHING! But...he is so sweet and I love him bunches!


Cole caught us spying on him!

In Cole's room we have a video monitor...we had it with Ellie and loved it...so it stayed in the nursery when Cole was born. Recently, Cole has been very interested in the thing that was hung on the wall with the fun lights on it. Today, he was trying to get to it...I video taped the monitor...I thought it was so cute!


Monday, March 9, 2009

I only spent $6.89!!

My sister, Katie, and I have become quite the little bargain shoppers. It all started with my quiting my work at home job (I know - sounds stupid...but I would not have been able to have my two kids home all day with me - and still work - plus the job was stressful!) so...I started couponing and looking at ways to cut back. I got really into it - and then Katie soon followed. Let me tell you...I created a monster! If Katie and I are together on the weekends we get together at some point and go through the paper looking at what is on sale and what we can combine with coupons to get the best deal! A lot of the time I walk out of a store with a few free items!

Katie is especially good at figuring out how to work CVS. CVS can be your best friend. You just have to know how to work it! I want to give you an example that Katie helped me get! Ok, CVS had their Coke products 4/13 That is an ok deal right now...but the key was you get $3 in extra care bucks when you buy 4 of them (an extra care buck is dollars you earn using your extra care card - which is the first thing you need to do is sign up for one at CVS.com) Ok...back to the deal. Katie had a Coke coupon that got me $2 off of 4 packs. Well, I was buying 4 packs (We use A LOT of coke products) to get the $3 buck deal...so...I paid $11 for 4 packs of Coke products plus I have my $3 bucks to use next visit. Then, later Katie and I went back...and I had some GREAT Huggies coupons (get them at Couponsusie.com you can print two copies by clicking the back button and refreshing the page). These coupons are for $5.00 off a jumbo pack or bigger. It says you have to get Gentle Care type but I bought the regular old Snug and Drys. I also needed M&M's to put in Ellie's plastic eggs for Easter. I also had a coupon from the Sunday paper a few weeks ago. The candy was on sale for 2/$5. I also get a $5 off of $25 CVS coupon everytime I go into CVS...they have a machine when you walk in and you scan your CVS card and it prints out coupons. So...I bought 2 jumbo packs of Huggies ($19.76), 2 bags of M&Ms ($5.00), but I needed .24 to meet my $25 to get $5 off. Katie looked through her coupons and she had mentos coupons for a dollar off of 1 pack of gum. The gum was $1.29...so my total before any coupons with all 5 products was $26.05 (this was after the sale of the diapers and M&M's though). Then I had $20 worth of coupons (including my $3 from buying the cokes, 2 -$5 mannies for Huggies, $1 off candy, $1 off gum, and $5 off a $25 purchase!). So, my sub-total was 6.05 and with tax I paid $6.89. So, I walked out of the store spending $6.89 for full-price no coupon total of $33.66!!! THAT is a deal! You can get coke coupons by signing up for my coke rewards at mycokerewards.com. Each 12-pack is worth 10 points and when you get 35 points you get a $1 off coupon. The KEY is to match your coupons with sales and in store loyalty programs. Also, being flexible on brands...buy what you have a coupon for...when it is on sale!

I have to give a shout out to Katie on her yearly savings. She shops for formula, diapers, cokes, prescritpions (which Luke has had a lot of this year)...and a lot of other stuff. This year she has spent like $215.00 there but has saved like $291.00. Plus, every quarter you get 2% back on what you spent in extra care bucks, so...right now Katie would get back $10.15 b/c they take the amount BEFORE discounts...that is 1 1/2 free packs of diapers!! LOVE IT!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Updates!!

Well, lots has happened since my last blog entry.

First, My sweet Wukey got his tubes put in his ears. I was not able to be there (7 am appointment + 2 young children = disaster!) But, we went over to his house to see him that day and he was great! He was his normal wild and ALL OVER THE PLACE self. I have never seen a child into so much stuff! Katie is gonna have her HANDS FULL!! He is still my favorite nephew though!

We are all still trying to get over our sickness. I still have the congestion and have been put on an anti-biotic to knock it out! Cole has the crud now...but hopefully it won't turn into an ear infection. Ellie and Cole both go to the doctor for their 3 year and 9 mos appointment on March 23. Cole will have blood work done then, and I am not looking forward to it! When Ellie had blood drawn Tim had to literally hold her down...and mommy had to leave the room b/c I could not stand to see that! So...mom or Tim will for sure be coming with me for this!

Ellie and Cole are really starting to interact together and it is SO CUTE! They are starting to play with another (which sometimes causes melt-downs from certain little 3 year olds). But, today Ellie was talking about best friends and I asked her who her best friend was and she said Cole-Man. It really made me smile...I hope they stay "best friends" forever!

Lastly, last weekend we got to spend our Saturday night in the ER with Cole-Man. For some reason (we will not get into it on my blog) Cole was sitting on the bar stool at my mom's and his care taker looked away for a moment and Cole took a dive off the chair! He fell flat on his face and head. Poor guy...we thought he would be ok then he puked...and he was starting to have bloody boogers...so I freaked out just a little bit ;) and off we went. He was fine...he was flirting with all of the nursed by the time we got there...but the peace of mind that night was worth going. Now, both of my kids have an excuse if they grow up and are "just not right". Ellie fell out of a shopping cart at about the same age as Cole-Man...haha...we are FABULOUS parents! In all joking...I felt like the worst parent in the world after Ellie fell...but when I would tell other parents...immediatly they told me their "story" of what their child had done when they were little...it made me feel better that defax was not coming to knock on my door. Hopefully we won't have anymore "stories" like that...yeah right! haha!